It’s that time again. To reiterate, every Friday the Cupcake Rogues will randomly pick 2 characters to do battle – whether it be Marvel, DC, female, male, mutant, human, or human that pretends to be a mutant with magic (I’m looking at you, Juggernaut), they are all possible. Once we’ve randomly selected our two, they will go head to head in several categories with one being deemed winner. The winner will live on to fight another day, but a warning – with 200 possible characters, it may be awhile before round 2 🙂

Twenty-eighth week in the random selection:

Nightcrawler vs. Scarecrow

Nightcrawler

Scarecrow

Origin

Kurt Wagner was raised by Margali Szardos but is the natural child of Raven Darkholme (Mystique) and the demon-like mutant Azazel. When Kurt was born, he was already blue and furry with glowing eyes and a tail. Knowing she couldn’t raise him in the village she lived in, Mystique threw him in the river. Luckily he was saved by Azazel and given to Margali to raise. Kurt grew up with Margali and her children Stefan and Jimaine in the circus where he performed as an acrobat. When their circus was sold, the new owner wanted to put Kurt in the sideshow. Appalled, Kurt took off after his foster brother Stefan, who he had learned was going on a killing spree in a local German village. Kurt attempted to stop him, but accidentally killed Stefan during the struggle. When the villagers saw Kurt, they assumed that HE was the murderer. Before the villagers could kill him, Kurt was rescued by Charles Xavier who had come to recruit him to the X-Men.

Introduced in 1941, Dr. Jonathon Crane was a professor of psychology and an expert in the psychology of fear. When he was fired for firing a gun in his classroom and accidently wounding a student, he turned to a life of crime, donning a Scarecrow persona to terrify his victims. Batman and Robin throw him in Gotham State Penitentiary and he doesn’t show up in the comics again for 20 years. Later it is revealed that Crane was often bullied in high school by Bo Griggs and rejected by cheerleader Sherry Squires. Distraught and angry, he showed up to the school prom dressed as a scarecrow and wielding a gun, causing chaos in the school parking lot, causing Griggs to crash his car, leaving him paralyzed and killing Sherry Squires. It is also later revealed that Crane was raised by a fanatically religious grandmother whom he killed as a teenager.

Edge?

DRAW – both have interesting, unique origins that bring on the entertainment.

Powers/ Abilities

Nightcrawlers primary power is the ability to teleport himself and others. His agility, flexibility and dexterity are enhanced to the point where he can perform contortionist like feats without injury and can actually fence with his hands, feet and tail. Kurt can also blend into shadows completely, making him excellent for stealth missions. Kurt is also an excellent hand to hand combatant and swordsman.

Scarecrow uses toxins to make his victims hallucinate that their biggest fears have come to life. He wears his mask to scare his victims while they’re on the hallucinogen, as well as to protect himself from the toxins. Because of his prolonged use of the toxins, Scarecrow is terrified of Batman (stemming from a previous fear of bats). He is incapable of fearing anything except for Batman. Although he is NOT at all physically intimidating, he is well versed in “violent dancing,” a style based on the crane style of kung fu and drunken boxing. HA!

Edge?

Nightcrawler – Scarecrow would probably be fascinated by Kurt’s frightening appearance and want to be BFF’s. Nightcrawler would then teleport the hell out of there. Besides, Ol’ Crane is nothing but a crunk dancer without his gas.

Best Media Appearance

Nightcrawler has appeared in videogames, cartoons and movies. Most notably Bryan Singer’s X2, where he made the most amazing entrance to a movie EVER. We defy you to come up with a more fantastic introduction to a character/movie. Heath Ledger’s Joker came close, but it doesn’t beat Kurt taking out the whole of the Secret Service and nearly killing the President of the United States.

Scarecrow has been on several of the Batman universe animated series, along with Nolan’s movies and several video games. My personal favorite is his appearance in Arkham Asylum – every time I play that board in the morgue I really do feel like I’m tripping out. For the non-video game players, we’ll pick his appearance Batman Begins, which introduced us to a darker universe than we were used to, and in which Cillian Murphy efficiently creeped us out.

Edge?

Nightcrawler – Even if you’re not a Nightcrawler fan you can’t deny the sheer awesomeness of that entrance!

Costume

Nightcrawler usually wears a simple red and white bodysuit. When you’re covered in Indigo fur you don’t need anything flashy.

He’s dressed, um, like a Scarecrow.

Edge?

Scarecrow – Crane scares more than crows in that creepy getup

Most Entertaining Personality

Despite his demonic appearance, or perhaps because of it, Kurt is a happy go lucky type of guy. He’s always charming and gallant and loves pulling practical jokes. During the Divided We Stand storyline, Logan pulls a prank on Kurt by hacking into his image inducer to make Kurt look like Angelina Jolie. This results in Kurt’s picture being taken by the tabloids while he’s out with Piotr (Colossus).

Dr. Crane is OBSESSED with fear. It’s all he talks about and all he cares about. At one point he even gets addicted to it himself. This does not sound like a fun person to be around. It would be like an intense, cryptic version of Debbie Downer. “Oh hey, man, I’m going to eat this last twinkie, do you mind?” “Of course not, if you don’t mind that it’s FULL OF ANIMAL LARD THAT MAY CLOG YOUR ARTERIES AND CAUSE YOU TO DIE A PAINFUL DEATH!” “….um, well, I mean, I was more excited about it until you put it that way, but OK.”

Edge?

Nightcrawler – Bet you’re surprised aren’t you? Usually the Cupcake Rogues err on the side of crazy, but Scarecrow really needs to take a happy pill.

Best story arch

During Second Coming, Nightcrawler learns about X-Force and their lethal methods and almost quits the X-Men in disgust. Colossus convinces him to stay and Kurt is on a team assigned to protect Hope Summers. During a conflict with Bastion, Rogue is wounded leaving Hope open to attack. Seeing that Bastion is about to murder Hope, Kurt teleports in an attempt to save her. Bastion, anticipating this, places his arm in the spot where Kurt would appear. When Nightcrawler teleported to that spot it was to find Basions arm sticking out of his chest. Mortally wounded, Kurt prays to God for the strength for one last teleport and ports Hope to safety. Before he dies, Nightcrawler tells Hope that he believes in her.

In the Blackest Night storyline, we see that Scarecrow’s immunity to fear has rendered him practically invisible to the Black Lanterns. His inability to feel the fear that he is now addicted to has driven him crazy, made only worse by the disappearance of Batman. He purposely exposes himself to the revenant army, but still can’t feel fear. He is later deputized into the Sinestro Corps in order to combat the Black Lanterns. With the yellow ring, he is ecstatic to find that he is finally able to feel fear again. His happiness is cut short with Lex Luthor, overwhelmed by the orange light of greed, steals his ring.

Edge?

Nightcrawler – He goes out as a hero while Scarecrow scrounges around like a fear addict looking for his next fix.

Hotness

Lets put it this way, if you’re a Furry, Kurt is the man for you.

Please refer to photo above. No.

Edge?

Nightcrawler – Charm and humor can make up for A LOT.

Fiercest foe

Backwoods villagers. They are constantly trying to lynch or burn him at the steak. Can’t a fuzzy elf get a break!?

His greatest enemy and only fear, Batman. In fact, Scarecrow is so addicted to his fear of Batman that he compulsively seeks him out even after Batman’s apparent death.

Edge?

Scarecrow – Batman IS fear.

Biggest WTF Moment

Nightcrawler sometimes uses an image inducer to help him blend in with other people. He’s made himself look like Errol Flynn (his swashbuckling hero) and thanks to Wolverine, he’s even looked like Angelina Jolie.

Scarecrow gets mutated into “Scarebeast,” which actually does look as ridiculous as it sounds.

Edge?

Scarecrow – It just sounds like a world of dumb.

Person who should attempt an on-screen portrayal

Alan Cumming portrayed Nightcrawler in X2 and he did a marvelous job. He nailed the Nightcrawlers humor and sweetness and there were bits of his religious views thrown in. PLUS Mr. Cumming nailed Kurt’s German accent.

Cillian Murphy played Scarecrow in Batman Begins and briefly in The Dark Knight. He is eerie and creepy all on his own, so when he added it to the Scarecrow, out came a believable character – ta da!

Edge?

Nightcrawler – This was a close one, but you just can’t beat that epic movie opening, and Alan Cumming portrayed the BAMF-er perfectly.

Nightcrawler: 7

Scarecrow: 4

And the winner is…. Nightcrawler – proving that nice guys CAN finish first.